“It has been very pleasant to meet you again, Mr. Donnington, and have such a delightful chat, and I am so much obliged to you for not having pressed me to dance. I hope we shall see a good deal of you while you are here. You quite captured my dear mother during that time in Paris. Of course you’ll call.”
“I ventured to leave cards immediately on my arrival.”
Then she rose. “I must really go now. Major Sampayo will be looking for me for the next dance. Have you met the major yet?”
“I don’t think so; but I have had so many introductions this evening that I don’t remember all the names.”
“Ah, the result of your supposed purpose in Lisbon, probably. Of course I shall keep your secret,” she replied with a smile. Then a sudden change came over her. She paused, the hand which held her fan trembled, the effort to maintain the light indifference of voice and manner became apparent, and her voice was a trifle unsteady as she added: “You will meet Major Sampayo at our house. Ah, here he comes with my friend the Contesse Inglesia. I suppose my mother has told you I am betrothed to him.”
The news gripped me like a cramp in the heart, and I caught my breath and gritted my teeth as I stared at her.
But the next instant I rallied. The pain and concern in her eyes seemed to explain what had so perplexed me in her manner. Her agitation when I told her the real purpose of my presence; her quick assumption of indifference, of mere acquaintanceship, her studious evasion of my references to our time in Paris, and her light surface talk on things of no concern to either of us. If my new wild hope was right, all this had been merely intended to school herself to refer lightly to the matter of her betrothal.
I forced a smile. “Permit me to congratulate——” I began; but the words died on my lips as I turned and saw the two people whom she had mentioned.
The man, Major Sampayo, I knew to be one of the vilest scoundrels who ever escaped the gallows.
And his companion was the woman whose life I had saved from her revolutionary associates on the previous night.